Police use force to pull out Jal Satyagrahis out of water in MP

Khardana, Sep 12 (): Protesters sitting in neck-deep water for the past fifteen days in Khardana village of Madhya Pradesh, were forcibly brought out of the water by the police on Wednesday.

The Khardana village protesters were sitting in neck-deep water demanding the state government to reduce the level of the water of the Indira Sagar Dam from 262 metres to 260 metres. Today morning, police in large numbers went to the protesting site to pull out all the protesters from the water after the Madhya Pradesh government clamped section 144 under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in the district. Tight vigil was maintained in the protesting site, said a senior police officer.

Earlier on Monday, two ministers were sent by the state chief minister to Ghoghalgaon in the Khandwa district to share the grievances of the people of the village. Some of the satyagrahis in the two districts decided to give up their strike on Monday after the state Chief Minister Shivraj Chouhan promised them to fulfill all their demands.

Meanwhile, the Jal Satyagrahis of Khardana village said that no ministers had ever come and met them nor did anyone assure them to fulfill their demands. The villagers also said that they will not stop their satyagraha until the government comes forward to meet their demands.

When the protesters in the village refused to come out of the water, the police had to use heavy force on them in which a woman was hurt while being dragged out by the police.

More than hundred policemen including Rapid Action Force were positioned in the village overnight after the prohibitory orders were imposed under Section 144. The villagers with the help of the Narmada Bachao Andolan activists have been demanding proper rehabilitation from the government for the destruction caused to their properties due to the rise of water level in the dam.